Printing machines



July 12, 1960 Filed Aug. 29, 1955 J. H. GRUVER 2,945,088

PRINTING MACHINES 5 Sheets-Sheet '1 Znyenzor Job]: )5 Graver o z zforneyvs July 12, 1960 J; H. GRUVER 2,945,088

- PRINTINQv MACHINES Filed Aug. 29, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 v lnvenzor g;(Io/$122 7. Graver July 12, 1960 J. H. GRUVER PRINTING MACHINES 5Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Aug. 29, 1955 ltrr/enzor John 75. Gray/er July 12,1960 J GRUVER 2,945,088

PRINTING MACHINES Filed Aug. 29, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 m M122 1 wn TA2.2 .7 no mam-E2 NEGATIVE CLOSE SWITCH BIAS re lism 5L5 I I0 5 c. EMIT21191? 2 O1 116 Jolznfl. Grav r J. H. GRUVER PRINTING MACHINES July 12,1960 2,945,058

Filed Aug. 29, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Znverz for Jolzzz G a rum M Wfifornega .bodying the present invention;

U d ims Pm Q PRINTING MACHINES J ohn H. Gruver, Cleveland Heights,()hio,assignor to Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio,a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 29, 1955, Ser. No. 531,225

2 Claims. (Cl. 178-65) This invention relates to printing machines, andmore particularly to facsimileprinting machines.

The printing machine to which the present invention relates is the kinddisclosed in my co-pending applications Serial Nos. 502,932, filed April21, 1955, now abandoned, 514,295, filed June 9, 1955, now abandoned and347,600, filed April 8, 1953, now Patent No. 2,842,612, granted July 8,1958. In printing machines of this kind, individual instruments in theform of cards or the like bearing data to be reproduced are passed oneby one to a scanning station where the data thereon are scannedoptically and translated into electrical signals. These signals arespaced in tim'ein a relation that corresponds to the space developmentof the individual characters that were scanned, and the signals thuscreated are transmitted to a printing station so as tocontrol theoperation of vibrators which are adapted to'cooperate with rotatingprinting edges to produce on a' sheet or strip impressions of the datathat were scanned.

As described particularly in application Serial No. 347,600, the cardsor the like that bear the data tobe reproduced follow upon one anotherthrough the scanning station, and this relation may be of severaldifferent kinds. Thus, the cards may be fed so that the leading edge ofone card abuts the trailing edge of the next card in advance thereof,in'which event all the'data appearing on the cards are exposed to theaction of 2,945,088 Patented July 12, 196d Fig. 3 is a fragmentary planview showing the scan-' ning head in section and means at the printingstation for printing one record on a sheet; Fig. 4 is a front elevationof a portion of the timing means;

Fig. 4A is an elevation of a timing cam; Fig. 5 is a top plan view ofthe timing means including the timing switches;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the timing means; and- Fig. 7 is a wiringdiagram. Under the present invention, means are aflforded in a printingmachine of the kind mentioned above whereby the circuit between thescanning station and the printing station is broken in each cycle of themachine when an'edge, an opening or other portion of a card or the likenormally forming a shadow is in alignment with the scanning means, andit will be recognized from this that the present invention also makes itpossible to scan but a selected portion of such a card thereby enablingbut selected portions of the data printed thereon to berea produced atthe scanning station.

The present invention is illustrated as embodied in a printing machinePM, Figs. 1 and 1A, of the kind that is illustrated and described in theaforesaid application the scanning means; or the cards may be partlyover- I lapped so that portions only of the cards are scanned. In anyevent, it sometimes happens that shadows are produced along edges of thecards, and these shadows cannot, of course, be distinguished by thescanning means and hence signals are created as if these shadows weredata to be reproduced. It is, therefore, the primary object of thepresent invention to prevent transmission of a signal to theaforementioned vibrators except as to the actual data undergoingscanning; stated in other words, an object of the invention is to inelfect render the scanning means selective in a machine of the foregoingkind so that shadows are not reproduced at the printing station. Theinvention may also be used to .enable but selected portions of the dataon the cards to be reproduced.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent fromthe following description and claims and are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings which,

departing from the present invention and the purview of the appendedclaims. a

In the drawings:

. 7 Fig. 1 is a perspective at the back of a machine em- Serial No.514,295. In this machine a sheet S,Fig. 1A, to be printed is advancedthrough a printing station PS, Fig. 2. The printing station PS in themachine PM is multiple in nature in that multiple, identical impressionsare adapted to be printed simultaneously on several portions across thewidth of the sheet S so that a plurality ofrecords are produced, but forsimplicity means are shown in Fig. 2 for producing but one impressionon' a corresponding longitudinal fragment'of the sheet S.

The data that are to be scanned and reproduced at the printing'stationPS are carried on business cards as C, Fig. 2, and these cards areadaptedto be advanced one by one beneath a scanning head 25 at thescanning station'of the machine. Thecards as C that are tobe thusadvanced to the scanning station are arranged in a supply hopper 30,Fig. 1, which is supported at the back of the machine, the bottommostcard being advanced fromthe hopper 30 in each cycle of the machine. Fromthe scanning station, each card that was scanned is fed to a receivinghopper'31, Fig. 1.

The scanning head 25 is formed with two circumferential rows of scanningslots 21835 and 36. These slots are quite narrow in size and aredeveloped on the scanning head 25 was to be pitched or sloped in anaxial sense, and additionally the arrangement is such that the leadingend of one scanning slot in a particular one of the rows is opposite thetrailing end of the next adjacent scanning slot in the same row.

' At the scanning station, there are two objective lenses 40 and 41 andthese, lenses are arranged so that the data printed on the cards may beviewed thereby. Forpur poses of disclosure, the scannable data appearingon the cards C are in the present instance designated as comprising fourlines A1 B2, C3 and D4, these being intended to typify four lines ofdata on each card such as the usual four-line address. 7

At the'scanning station, there are a pair of lamps 44 and 45, and theseare associated with concentrating lenses 46 and 47 so as toilluminatenarrow, laterial bands on a pair of adjacent cards at thescanning station as shown in Fig. 2, and these bands are of a widthsuflicient to Positioned above the objective lenses 40 and 41 area r iqftr l tinemitt r .59% 4 n hs r adapt in the plates 54 and 55.

narrow aperture slits in a pair of aperture plates 54 and 55. The slitsin the aperture plates 54 and 55 are such as to span the path ,tracedout by the pitched or helical scanning sl ots 35 and 3 6;forrned inthe.scanningx;head 25. As described in the patents mentioned in theaforesaid ,co-pending applications, the optical arrangement is ch thatthe image passing through the aperture plate 54 is that of the secondand fourth lines printed ,on the cards C, whereas the image passingthrough the aperture plate 55 is that of the remaining two lines,namely, the first and third lines. Thus, it will be seen that at oneside the scanning head;25 will, through the scanning slots 35 and 36,pick up an alternate ;two of the lines of data on the cards C, and atthe opposite side will pick up the other alternate two of thefour linesof data. This arrangement ,will, of course, be varied in accordance withthe num ber and arrangement of the lines of data appearingenthe cards Cthat are to be scanned.

As indicatedin Fig. 3, there are four mirrors as 58 within the scanninghead 25, and these feed light beams, originated by the lamps 44 and 45and reflected as above described, to four photocells as 59, Fig. 1,arranged at the scanning station, one for each line of data scanned.Each time a bit of a character printed on a card C appears inthe slit ofan aperture plate and is thereupon picked up by the scanning head 25,such is manifest in the beam for that line of data being interruptedmomentarily which amounts to a black signal at the correspondingphotocell, and each character scanned will be represented by many suchblack signals spaced in time.

The black signals that are thus created at the scanning station areamplified and transmitted to vibrators as 60, Fig. 3, at the printingstation. There is one such vibrator for each lineof data to bereproduced, and cooperating with this vibrator is a pitched or helicaledge as 61 on a disc as '62. shaft 62S which rotates in synchronism withthe scanning head 25; The sheet to be printed is interposed between.theprinting edges 61 and the vibratory blades 65 of the vibrators, .andcarbon tapes CT, Fig. 1A, one for each record, are interposed betweenthe outwardly disposed face of the sheet to be printed and the vibratorblades .so that the vibrators while responding to the black signalsoriginating at the scanning station reproduce on the sheet S the datathat are scanned as shown in Fig. 2. Thus, there will be a carbon tapeCT for the four vibrators in Fig. 2 interposed as aforesaid. V

The sheet to be printed is first directed upwardly at one side of theprinting station so that the second'and fourth'lines are printed thereonas shown in Fig. 2 by the pair of vibrators allocated to those twolines, and then the partially printed sheet is reversed in direction soas to pass downwardly at the opposite side of the printing station wherethe first and third lines are then filled in by the other pair ofvibrators.

As was mentioned, a signal is created at the scanning station in thoseinstances where black is picked up by a scanning slot as 35 or 36traversing the aperture slits The desired occurences of black signalsare represented, of course, by the data to be printed at the printingstation, but where the edges of'the cards abut as shown in Fig. 2, orwhere the cards are fed so as to partially overlap one another, or wherethe cards in addition to the ordinary kind of printed data also bearpunched hole data as 70, Fig. 2, shadows are created that may produceundesired black signals, and

underthe present invention means are afforded for preventing thetransmission of such undesired black signals to the printing station sothat the vibrators at the printing station are ineffective to produceundesired marks on the sheet s. i I V i H provided in the circuitbetween each photocell and its corresponding vibrator, and in each cycleof the machine these switches are effective to assure that the onlysignals arriving at the printing station are those that originate at thetime the data on each card that are to be printed are beneath thescanning head.

To this end, a mounting bracket 80, Fig. 4, for timing means in the formof a set of fonrtiming switches is anchored as shown in Fig. 1 on a bedplate 81 adjacent the supply hopper o r magazine 30. v The bracket 80includes a pair of upstanding arms 81 and 82,'Figs. 4 and 5, andanchored to these arms by cap screws 83 is a horizontal mounting plate.84. Fourspaced apart individual mounting brackets 85 are afforded, andthese are provided at the lower ends with forwardly extending flanges85F that fit in to grooves at the underside of the mounting plate 84.The flanges 85F are slotted at 86, Fig. 5, to receive cap screws 87which hold the brackets 85 to the mounting plate, this eonstructionenabling adjustment of theatimingswitches to be made. Mounted by screws89, Fig. 5 to each bracket 85 is a normally open switch SW, Fig.; 6,there being foursuchtiming switches SW-l, SW-Z, SW-3 and SW-4. As willbe described, these switehes in the present instance are normally open,each being provided with a normally open contact arm 90, Fig. 6, whichcarries a cam follower 9 1. Thus, there are four cam-operated contactsand followers 91-1, 91-2, 1 an 1-4. i 5

Each of theswitches SW includes a pair of wires as w-d and w'- 2, Fig.6, and these wires are sheathed in a gable-'95 clamped to the arm 82 ofthe bracket 80 by a cla p Forwardly of the switches SW is a cam shaft100,

3 Fig.5, which is adapted to be driven in away tobe de- The individualdiscs 62 are carried on a scribed, and this shaft is supported inbearings 101 and 102 that aremounted in the arms 81 and 82 of thebracket 80. This cam shaft at the end corresponding to the bearing 101extends outwardly of the arm .81of the bracket 80 and carriesa drivegear 105, Fig. 4. The drive gear 105 is meshed with a transmitting gear106 rotatably supported in the arm 81 of the bracket 80 over the gear105 as shown in Fig. 4, and the gear 106 in turnis meshed with a gear 111, Figs. 1 and 4, which, it may he pointed out, is likewise identifiedas the gear .111 inmy co-pending application Serial No. 347,600. Thus,the cam shaft 100 is driven continuously so as to rotate through 360 ineach machine cycle.

Arranged in spaced relation along the shaft 100 so as to;be;opposite-the cam followers 91-1 through 91-4 described above are cams 115-1,115-2, 115-3 and 1 15-4 as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Each of these camsconsists of a pair of juxtaposed cams 116 of the kind shown in Fig. 14A,having a dwell 116D and a lobe 116C which in the present instanceextends for of arc. By utilizing a pair ofsuch cams in each cam set115-1 through 1'15-4, the effective are of the lobe may be selectivelyadjusted. Thus, as will be apparent from Fig. 6, the lobes of the duringa cycle of rotation of the cam shaft 100 will be effective on thefollowers 91-1 through 91-4 to close the switches SW- 1 through SW-4.This, of course, will besimultaneous and of equal duration for the fourtiming switches in the present instance, but the cams 116 in each setmay be altered as to configuration and adjustment to correspondinglyestablish the periodof time for which the ,switches SW-1 through SW-4are held closed.

Asmentioned, the signals originating from the photocells at the scanningstation are transmitted along corresponding channels or circuits to anamplifier and from the amplifierto a vibrator as 60, Fig. 3, so that thevibrator blades 65 are-signally operated in each photocell circuit todevelop in space on the sheet S the characters that appear on theinstrument C. There is of course, one vibrator and a separate circuitallocated thereto fo-r each In accordance with the present invention, aswitch is 75 l e 9;- data to be printed at the printing station. Wheremultiple records are to be printed, the vibrators for printing identicallines at allocated areas across the width of the sheet S will bearranged in series so that each receives simultaneously the same signal.

In Fig. 7, a portion of a circuit between a photocell 59 and itsamplifier is shown in schematic form, and under the present inventionthis circuit is normally inoperative to emit or pass a signal to theamplifier. Thus, the plate 120 of the photocell is connected by a wire121 through a resistance 122 and a condenser 123 to the grid of thefirst stage amplifier of the signal conducting circuit. The resistance122 is selected so that a black signal emitted by the photocell 59 willnot be passed to the amplifier. The resistance 122 is, however, shortedby the wires w'-1 and w-2 of a timing switch SW which is normally open.During the course of rotation of the cam shaft 100, the lobe of the cam116 is effective to close the switch SW, which is the conditionillustrated in Fig. 7, whereby the resistance 122 is shorted and anysignal emitted by the photocell at this time is enabled to pass to theamplifier for transmission on to the corresponding printing vibrator atthe printing station. In positioning the cams as 116 on the cam shaft100, the area occupied on the cards C by the data to be printed at theprinting station is taken into account, so that the switches SW are allclosed at least during the time that these areas are exposed at thescanning station. On the other hand, the switches SW are normally closedat least while abutting edges of the cards are passing beneath thescanning means.

In this way, the signal transmitting circuits or channels between thescanning station and the printing station can be held inoperative attimes when edges of the cards are passing through the scanning station,or, stated in other words, the signal transmitting circuits can beconditioned for effective operation only at times when data-carryingareas of the cards C are exposed at the scanning station It will beappreciated that the circuit shown in Fig. 7 is merely that which ispreferred, and other arrangements may be resorted to for rendering thecircuits for the vibrators inoperative except at pre-selected times.

Hence, while I have illustrated and described the preferred embodimentof my invention, it is to be understood that this is capable ofvariation and modification, and I therefore do not wish to be limited tothe precise details set forth, but desire to avail myself of suchchanges and alterations as fall within the purview of the followingclaims.

I claim:

1. In a machine of the kind described adapted to re produce dataappearing in a plurality of lines on each of a series of individualinstruments, a scanning station to and through which the instruments arepassed one by one in flat abutting or overlapping relation, scanningmeans at the scanning station comprising a plurality ofphotocell-controlled signal-transmitting circuits including asignal-transmitting circuit for each line of data carried by such aninstrument and adapted to translate these respective lines of data in tosignals and to transmit individually the signals for each line tosignally operated printing means at a printing station in the machinefor printing the individual lines of data on a sheet or the like, and atiming switch in each signal-transmitting circuit operable in each cycleof the machine while an instrument is passing through the scanningstation to render each of said transmitting means inefiective for apredetermined time interval during which it is desired that there be nosignals transmitted to the printing station, said time intervalincluding at least the period in which the leading edge of saidinstrument traverses said scanning station.

2. In a machine of the kind described adapted to reproduce dataappearing in a plurality of lines on each of a series of individualinstruments, a scanning station to and through which the instruments arepassed one by one in flat abutting or overlapping relation, opticalscanning means at the scanning station for scanning each line of data onsuch an instrument passing through the scanning station, said scanningmeans for each line of data including a photocell to translate scanneddata in to signals and arranged in a circuit to transmit the signals toa printing means operable in accordance with the signals emitting fromthe scanning station to reproduce the scanned data on a sheet or thelike, and a carn-controlled timing switch in each such photocell circuitoperable in each cycle of the machine while an instrument is passingthrough the scanning station to render each such circuit inelfective totransmit signals for a predetermined time interval including at leastthe period in which the leading edge o f said instrument traverses saidscanning station.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSJelinek Sept. 20, 1955

